Urban Agriculture

The Western Province in Sri Lanka is the most urbanised province in the country. Rapid urban growth has posed a number of problems. Ever increasing vehicle traffic and commercial industries have contributed to increased environmental and air pollution.

The Multi-stakeholder Policy Formulation and Action Planning approach was applied in the context of a multi-city study to influence and/or change policies that govern urban agriculture practices in three African and two Asian countries.

Peri-urban agriculture has brought out two clear impacts on farmers and the rural economy. The fi rst is the long-term impact of rise in land prices associated with reduced size of holding for agriculture, and the second, the short-term impact of rise in agricultural wages. In peri-urban and rural agriculture, the contribution from wage income exceeds 50%. Nevertheless, the per capita incomes of farmers in these scenarios are 50% lower than the per capita income of an average Indian. Steps are suggested to improve the economic situation of peri-urban farmers.

Sustainable Low-Carbon City Development in China, summarizes the lessons of the World Bank’s activities related to sustainable urban development in China. The report presents overall policy recommendations in low-carbon city development and highlights specific experiences across key sectors, including energy, transport, solid waste, and water.

The current global urban population is expected to double by 2050, with 90 percent of urban growth taking place in developing countries. Many cities are ill equipped to handle such large-scale expansion. Various cities are starting to recognise urban
agriculture as an integral part of urban planning, upgrading and design. They are including urban agriculture in land use planning, social housing programmes and slum upgrading. This article describes some examples of their strategies.

The financial crisis of 2007/2008 had far-reaching impacts on developing countries, especially in cities which are more directly embedded in the global economy. Declining economic activity, negative effects on the terms of trade with the rich world and consequent job losses, as well as reduced remittances from family members working abroad, disproportionately affected urban households.

Pig raising is one of the main activities carried out by urban farmers in periurban areas of northern and southern Lima, due to a lack of water for irrigation in the desert climate. The RUAF FStT programme collaborated with the producer organisation
AGROSILVES to improve the productivity and profitability of its farmer members, by applying the production chain approach and strengthening their organisation.

The objective of Agromere, a planning concept for an area situated in the rapidly growing Dutch city of Almere (185,000 inhabitants), was to explore opportunities to re-integrate agriculture into modern Dutch city life, while at the same time
inspiring stakeholders to incorporate urban agriculture in the city’s actual development plan. Through a combined stakeholder and design process, a virtual city district on 250 ha was designed which integrates living space (for 5,000 inhabitants)